Online ClassStrategies for Success in Your Online Class
Watch out! Educators are still working out the glitches as they enter this new paradigm of online classes. If you're not careful, you might waste a lot of time because the people who design the classes are learning how to do it along the way. Here are some tips for getting the best possible outcome.
Try to Make Sure You Have a Strong Internet Connection and Strong Computer
The class websites slow down your computer a lot! If you experience any slowness, it's worthwhile to spend some money on a better computer or faster Internet service. You'll see what I mean when you sign into Blackboard, Moodle, Angel, or whatever platform is used by your school.
Send Yourself an Email Message with a List of Things to Do
Scan the syllabus and make a list of everything you have to do each week. For example, maybe the class is designed in a way that requires you to do these things each week: Post a discussion each week, respond to discussions posted by two other students, participate in a chat, take a quiz, and complete an assignment. Send yourself a reminder about important tasks and deadlines; the purpose of the reminder is not just to remind you but also to help you internalize (memorize) the important information. Also there is one day each week when all work is due; make note of this important day, because you'll be planning your schedule around it for the duration of the class.
Only Ask Yourself to Complete One Task!
It's easy to get overwhelmed if you try to think about all this stuff at once. Starting your work should be easy; just go to “Week One” and paste all the assignment information and discussion prompts into a word document. Look at the first question, and open your text book to find the answer. As the ancient Chinese philosophy majors always said, "Every long journey begins with just one step."
Use CTRL+F (Find) to Pass Your Quiz
If you pasted all assignment information into a word document, it's easy to find the answers to quiz questions while taking a timed quiz. Hold down the CTRL key plus “F” to FIND a keyword in your document. If a question includes a distinct word or phrase, you can find the answer in just a few seconds by searching for this term in your document. And if that doesn't work, search Google!
If You Are Failing Your Quiz, Maybe the Quiz Will Be Interrupted While in Progress
I don't know how it happened! Maybe it was a server issue on the school website. Since you are paying so much for tuition, it would be nice if they could invest in decent web development so there are no technical difficulties during the quiz. Or maybe your cat just knocked over the router. I know someone who used to actually photograph the questions and then have his cat knock over the router, so he'd be given the chance to take the quiz again and he'd already know what the questions were going to be! There's probably a way to do this even if you don't have a cat. See what works for you.
Do Your Discussion Posts Early
Make it easy for them to give you an “A” by being a go-getter about the discussions. Instructors don't want to be accused of bias or unfair grading. Give them an excuse to use you as an example of a student who gets an excellent grade for excellent participation. You are going to have to do this stuff anyway, so you might as well post discussions early. The people who run the class want to see a lively discussion, and that can only happen if one of you takes initiative and starts a discussion early in the week instead of waiting until the deadline.
Wait Until the Last Day of the Week to Respond to Other People's Discussions
Try to plan on responding to other people's discussion posts on the last day of each week. It might save you a lot of time. Too often, I have gone to look for people's discussion posts so I can reply to them, and I find that ALL the other students procrastinated until the last day of the week. So I have to cancel my work session and wait until the last day of the week anyway.
I'll end this article with the tip I think is most important:
Avoid the "switching cost" that slows you down. Researchers who study reaction time observe that when we switch from one type of task to another there is a "cost". We slow down a little. So if you paste all your questions, discussion prompts, and activity instructions into a word document before you begin to work, you'll finish twice as quickly as the student who pastes a question opens the text book, answers it, and pastes another question. Similarly, when you respond to other people's discussion questions, do them all at once instead of sporadically throughout the week. Apply this rule in everything you do during the class, and you'll make faster progress and fewer mistakes.